Working on the Timeline in Premiere

Working the Timeline

To begin editing you must create a Sequence which will open in the Timeline window. You can have many Sequences so make sure to name each with a descriptive name. It is important to remember that when you make a new sequence to change the presets to match the video format. If you are not sure what your settings are open up your media in quicktime player and open up inspector and then look for the frame rate per second as well as the format and resolution. Those are all important because if the settings do not match it can cause difficulties when it comes to editing your project.

After you create the new sequence it will save in the Project tab with the rest of your media, you can rename the sequence or create a folder to organize all your sequences if you are working with multiple.

After you import the files and organize them you can then bring them down to your timeline. One method is to simply click on the file and drag it into the timeline area. This will bring down the entire contents of the media clip that you selected.

Another method of getting your media to the timeline is to double click on the clip in the Project tab and then it will open in the Source window just to the left of the Program window. In this window you can preview the clips and edit them by using in and out points. In and out points allow you to select a certain starting point for the clip which is the “in” and then you can select a stopping point which is the “out” after shortening your clip and getting the section of the clip you know you will be using you can then drag it into the timeline and begin editing. Both methods of getting your media into the timeline work and are efficient, but one just has an additional step before going into the timeline and the other would require more use of the Razor or Trim tools to edit out unwanted parts of the clip.

In the timeline you have different tracks for both video and audio. While working with the audio tracks it is important to know that you are not limited to only one track of audio, there are audio tracks 1, 2, 3, etc. you can make as many audio tracks as your project requires or needs. When playing your media it will play all the audio from each track. If you only want certain tracks to play at certain times you can set that up using the control panel along the side of the timeline. By clicking on the speaker icon the audio tracks will turn on and off.

When using video tracks it is a similar situation in that you are not only limited to one track, you can make as many video tracks as you want however the only video that will show in the Program window by default is the top layer of video. There are additional edits and effects you can add to the video tracks to make more than one track of video appear such as split screen or transparency.

After you place the files into your timeline the next step is to begin the real editing process

Basic Editing tools:

The tools you will be using are located and accessed from the toolbar menu on the side of the timeline window. All of the tools located in that menu are Selection tool, Track selection Forward tool, Track selection backward tool, Ripple edit tool, Rolling edit tool, Rate stretch tool, Razor tool, Slip tool, Slide tool, Pen tool, Hand tool, and the Zoom tool. These are all the tools including the basic and advanced tools. You will mostly be using the basic editing tools. Below you will see what each of the basic tools look like in the toolbar and what they do.

Selection Tool: This tool is the most primary it allows you to select and you can shorten or extend your video clip as well as adjust volume within the clip and so much more.

Razor Tool: The razor tool allows you to get within the video clip and delete unnecessary parts of the clip as well as separate and break apart the media for example if you need one piece to overlap another you can take the other piece of the clip to the next line in the timeline.

Hand tool: This tool allows you to select your piece of media and move it throughout the timeline without making an edit to it

Zoom tool: The zoom tool allows you to zoom in and out with the timeline so you can see all of your media at once or just focus on one specific part and edit it

Pen tool: The overall thing this tool is used for is to create keyframes. Keyframes allow you to manipulate certain variables like Opacity or the Audio Level at specific times in the clip. To use the pen tool in the timeline window click on the small drop down arrow on the Audio or Video track which will allow you to see the yellow line. Using the pen tool you can add keyframes in at certain areas to edit the tracks to fade in and out similar to a transition except smoother and it fits well into the track by fading in and out of black. It can also raise and lower the audio level and fade it in and out.